The suspension of Keith Olbermann by MSNBC for donating to some Democratic candidates is a continuation of the repressive neutrality being enforced by news networks trying to pretend that objectivity is either possible or desirable. But there's another part of the story for MSNBC: The hypocrisy. It turns out that in 2006, Joe Scarborough on MSNBC not only gave a donation to a Republican candidate, but then had that candidate on his show less than a week later without disclosing the conflict of interest. As far as I know, Scarborough was never suspended for doing this.
Here's the evidence: on March 31, 2006, Joe Scarborough gave a $4,200 donation to Republican Derrick Kitts of Oregon. That's no surprise: he had given to many Republicans in the past, as do lots of commentators on MSNBC.
But then Scarborough featured Kitts on his show on MSNBC on April 4, 2006. Here's how Scarborough introduced Kitts:
I asked Oregon‘s majority whip and congressional candidate Derrick Kitts how his party could possibly run as a force for change and reform when Tom DeLay is adding to GOP‘s woes.
Kitts responded by talking about, ironically enough, campaign contributions and ethical issues.
And here was Scarborough's response to Kitts:
And you talked about your opponent, obviously, you‘re going to try to make ethics an issue in your race.
Scarborough made absolutely no disclosure of the fact that he had given a large sum of money to the campaign of the man he was generously lobbing softball questions to in order to aid the candidate's campaign. Nor is there any evidence that he allowed the opponent Kitts had smeared an opportunity to respond to these accusations.
If Olbermann's journalistic ethics are in question because of a donation, then so should Scarborough's. And unless Scarborough and other MSNBC commentators have been suspended for giving political donations, it's time to bring Olbermann back on the air.